Rocco’s Italian lives on in mobile form | Food & Drink

Do you overlook Rocco’s Italian Restaurant as significantly as I do? We enjoyed many family foods there around the decades, and the staff members made us really feel welcome every time. I reviewed Rocco’s in their authentic spot at Maizeland and Academy back again in the late ’90s, and some a long time later on I wrote about the new location in the old Steaksmith. When we instructed our higher education-age daughters the cafe had shut in October of 2019, they cried.

But then I noticed a thing on Fb a handful of months back that gave me a glimmer of hope. Rocco’s has a foods truck! I feel there really should be billboards about town exclaiming that. Yeah, so it’s really clear by now, I’m heading into this writeup as a superfan. You are going to be joyful to know the same enjoy is going into the food, previous/existing homeowners Robert and Laurie Tust are still applying the similar marinara recipe, and sure — you can nonetheless buy jars of it to go. I start off with an buy of calamari. I hope it will be respectable, but I’m blown absent. The texture is chic, superior than most sit-down dining establishments. The tremendous-tender very little planks of calamari, hardly breaded, are golden brown and dusted with Parmesan and chopped parsley. Even though scrumptious with a squeeze of lemon, they sing when dunked in that rich, herby marinara.

The Chicken Parmesan sandwich also will come with a side of that superb sauce. And a bag of chips, which I dip in the marinara with no shame. The sandwich, dependent on a juicy rooster cutlet, provides the exact same crispy golden exterior as the calamari. A schmear of sauce and a slice of melted cheese adorn the rooster, and a superior, chewy bun retains it all collectively. And finally, there was no way I was likely to move up Italian Beef.

Sautéed peppers and onions, moreover melted cheese crown the flavorful, thinly sliced beef, all held alongside one another by a toasted roll that retains up to dunking in the facet cup of jus.

Two factors to keep in mind right here: One, you can dunk the sandwich in marinara and no just one will fault you. Two, you can consume the leftover jus, if you have any, with no regrets in any way. I still skip Rocco’s pizza, their white clam sauce, and primarily their Italian Product Cake from the brick-and-mortar days. But the business’ pleasant, welcoming spirit lives on in the foods truck, and I’m outside of satisfied for that.